Pentheus's Death in "Bacchae" by Euripides

"Bacchae", by Euripides, talks about Dionysus (also called Bromius, Bacchus, or Evius), son of Zeus and a mortal woman, Semele, who came back to his homeland of Thebes to show everyone that he was a real god. His mother was killed while giving birth to him and her sisters spread rumors that she lied about her pregnancy. Therefore his family does not know about his existence. Dionysus's cousin Pentheus was not convinced that he was god and argued with him in spite of everyone around telling him to stop fighting with Dionysus. At the end of the play, his own mother killed Pentheus while she was at the state of being possessed by Bacchus; not knowing it was her son. Why does Pentheus get killed? This essay discusses three possible explanations for that.

The first and the most important reason is, of course, that Pentheus denies Dionysus being...